Gamified Learning Community of Practice

Please note that this KNoT will be run in the ANU Birch Building (Innovation Space, level 2), and will extend from 10-3pm, including lunch.

SoCIETIE Students attending this KNoT can attend the whole session for 2 KNoTs.

While not a requirement, we suggest that you come to the workshop with an idea for a learning or teaching opportunity or challenge that you would like to explore through the lens of gameful learning.

The ANU Gameful Learning Community of Practice invites you to explore the potential of gameful experiences for learning and teaching.

In this interactive workshop, you will hear from experts and practitioners, explore the opportunities for gameful approaches for your own learning and teaching, and (optional, 1-3pm) sample a taster of existing and emerging gameful learning experiences.

The opportunities of gameful learning

Games and gameful experiences provide a platform for experiential learning in a safe environment, in which exploration is encouraged and the cost of mistakes is minimised. This gameful learning is used in complex situations such as military training (wargames), environmental and urban policy development, supply chain management and organisational strategy. Games are themselves systems in which both physical/technical and social/cultural complexities can be modelled and grappled with by participants within engaging, active learning experiences.

However, deploying, let alone developing, gameful learning experiences is itself a complex process, requiring transdisciplinary collaboration between subject matter experts, game designers and pedagogical experts (a practice called Triadic Game Design). ANU is home to all three categories of contributors. The Gameful Learning Community of Practice aims to connect and support them in using and developing gameful experiences to support learning and teaching experiences for staff and students.

Hayward, C. and Fishman, B. (2020) Gameful Learning: Designing with Motivation in Mind. ICLS Proceedings (PDF, 8 pages)

Gameful experiences for hopeful futures (webpage)

The ANU Gameful Learning Community of Practice is an open and inclusive community of staff and students interested in exploring new ways to create engaging and effective learning experiences. In 2026, it received a Teaching and Learning grant from the College of Systems and Society.

The workshop runs from 10am – 3pm, and you are welcome to attend it in its entirety. However, you can complete the KNoT by attending 10am – 1pm and submitting the your response to the following prompts (as a completion task) through the link below:

Gameful learning experiences :

• Have you encountered gameful learning experiences in your university or professional journey before?
• What resonated with you most from the presentation and workshop?
• (optional, if you attend the 1-3pm session): which taster(s) resonated with you most and why?
  
  

Looking forward:

• Where (in university and/or professional settings you engage in) do you think gameful learning would add the most value and why?
• How would you further develop the gameful learning experience prototype you developed during this workshop?
• How can the Gameful Learning Community of Practice support you in doing so?